By The Canadian Press

Cozens, Stutzle, Ullmark leading way as surging Senators make push for playoffs

Mar 6, 2026 | 3:00 AM

CALGARY — Dylan Cozens, Tim Stutzle, and Linus Ullmark are all on a roll and so are the Senators.

Led by contributions from all three players, Ottawa climbed to within four points of the Boston Bruins for the second wild-card spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference on Thursday with a 4-1 victory over the Calgary Flames.

The Senators have points in five straight (3-0-2) games and are 7-1-2 in their last 10.

“Huge win for us,” said Cozens, whose power-play goal at 6:33 of the third period broke a 1-1 tie. “Every point matters at this point the season, and after losing that point in Edmonton (on Tuesday), we knew we needed two tonight.”

Cozens has 22 goals on the season, five of them coming in his last three games.

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“His game is really taking off,” said Senators coach Travis Green. “He’s still a young guy. I think people don’t realize how young he is. He’s still learning, but he’s playing really well right now.”

His strong play has been noticed by fellow centre Tim Stutzle.

“He works all over the ice, plays really hard, finishes his hits, and just gets rewarded,” he said.

Stutzle himself then put the game on ice, making it 3-1 with an empty-netter with just over two minutes to go. The goal extended the 24-year-old centre’s point streak to 11 games (seven goals, eight assists).

He’s the first Senators player to record multiple 11-game point streaks in a single season. He had a 13-game point streak end on Jan. 5.

“A big win. Huge team effort,” said Stutzle, who leads the club with 66 points (29 goals, 37 assists). “Those are big points for us.”

Goaltender Linus Ullmark gave up a first-period goal to Martin Pospisil before shutting down the Flames the rest of the way, making 19 stops in all.

Ullmark is 8-0-3 in his last 11 decisions and hasn’t lost a game in regulation since a 4-3 setback to the New Jersey Devils on Dec. 9.

Veteran Lars Eller scored the tying goal in the second period. It was his third goal of the season and first in 35 games.

“Strong belief within the team,” said Eller. “Everybody has faith in our game, what kind of team we are, and how we’re going to win games. Everybody’s committed to that and most every night, I like our chances.”

Earlier in the day, Ottawa general manager Steve Staios showed his faith in the team by acquiring 29-year-old forward Warren Foegele from the Los Angeles Kings.

“Obviously we’re not where we want to be in the standings this season, but we know that we’re definitely still in it,” said Cozens. “To see that they believe in us too, and want to help us make that push, it’s big, and it instils a lot of confidence in our group.”

Foegele was expected to join the team ahead of their game Saturday night in Seattle.

“He can fly on the ice and he can put the puck in the back of the net too,” said Cozens. “So it’s really exciting to add him to this team and I think he’s going to help us in a lot of ways.”

Shane Pinto added a second empty-net goal to round out the scoring.

“Our team has a real good understanding of how they have to play to have success,” said Green. “We don’t get too far ahead of ourselves either, whether it’s the start of the year or even this time of year.

“We just want to play our game and we know if we do, we’ll win more games than we’re going to lose.”


This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 6, 2026.

Darren Haynes, The Canadian Press